IoT news of the week for Jan. 10, 2020

Security firm Armis acquired by a PE firm: Insight Partners, a private equity firm, has spent $1.1 billion to buy IoT security firm Armis. I covered Armis roughly a year ago, and it’s one of several IoT security firms I think will be rolled up into larger companies. Which makes sense as many of these startups only focus on part of what can be a very long and complex chain of security that can stretch from chip to cloud or from a company’s IT network to their operational technology network. (Haaretz)

Arduino launches an industrial board at CES: Arduino boards are cheap computing boards used for controlling motors, lights, and the things in the IoT. The development boards are part of classrooms and prototypes, and now the open-source organization behind the board is launching the Portenta family of professional-grade products. The newly launched Portenta H7 module relies on a dual-core Arm Cortex-M7 and Cortex-M4 operating at 480MHz and 240MHz, respectively, for processing power and has industrial-grade components that can run in extreme environments. The Portenta H7 runs Arduino code, Python and JavaScript, which broadens the base of potential users considerably. The new Arduino Portenta H7 costs $99 and will ship in February 2020. (Arduino)

Want to see how much your router knows about you? Plume issued a report this week about the market share of smart home devices, how kids are watching video content, and the number of smart home devices in homes — all based on the data it has access to by managing the network traffic on routers. In Plume’s case, the data belongs to the ISPs that buy and implement Plume’s software. But Eero, Netgear, Linksys, and other companies also can access this type of data, which means that Amazon and several consumer device companies have quite a bit of detail about what goes on in the home. In Plume’s case, it has more detailed information because users can create device profiles and family member profiles that show which devices belong to kids and which ones belong to adults. (Plume)

What to know about the threat of Iranian cyberattacks: My former colleague at Fortune, Robert Hackett, has written an excellent overview of the potential threat coming from Iran in retaliation for the assassination of Major General Qassem Soleimani. In it, he explains what such an attack would cost and why it would likely come as part of an attack in the physical world. I hadn’t considered most of these points, but I found them convincing. (Fortune)

We may not be under cyberattack now, but it is a big threat: This is a good companion for the article above. In this Twitter thread Beau Woods, a Cyber Safety Innovation Fellow with the Atlantic Council and CEO of Stratigos Security, explains why the Iranians will wait and time their cyberattacks for maximum chaos. He also offers a glimpse of how terrifying that chaos could be, such as if Iran targeted a hospital to shut it down or limit its capabilities during a bombing strike. He also links to others on Twitter who are worth following, including those offering solid advice to strengthen your defenses. (Twitter)

Spectrum is getting out of home security and leaving customers with the gear: Spectrum (formerly Time Warner Cable) is getting out of the home security business and customers don’t know what to do with all their gear. The software behind the system will stop working next month, and while Spectrum is offering refunds for it, many customers spent more on the hardware that’s now going to stop working as well. A lot of those sensors are Z-wave, so it’s possible that enterprising users can unpair the sensors from their Spectrum system and then repair it to SmartThings or another Z-wave supporting hub, but it might take more DIY than they are into. The loss of another smart home provider is not yet a tale as old as time, but it’s one smart home aficionados are getting all too used to hearing. (Syracuse.com)

CES Day 1 coverage: Kevin and I shared our thoughts from the first day spent in Vegas before the trade show floor actually opened. There were a lot of locks. (StaceyonIoT)

CES Day 2 coverage: Bluetooth gives audio a low-power codec and we see even more locks. (StaceyonIoT)

My favorite roundup of CES devices: This is an excellent list of interesting finds at CES that doesn’t just focus on the few big items everyone is talking about such as the new Segway S-Pod. It also features one of my favorite items from the show, the Lua, which is a sensor-laden pot for your plants that basically is like a Tamagotchi. A screen on the front lets you know if the plant is getting enough water or light.  (BBC)

Kohler tried to solve the Alexa shower challenge: I’ve had a digital assistant in my bathroom since 2015 because I find there’s nothing better than listening to morning news or music as I get ready for the day. Shower radios have been “a thing” for a while, so I’m not alone. But getting Alexa in the shower has required some ingenuity. One option is to accept that you’ll need power and connectivity and just make it part of a renovation that involves adding electricity behind the shower wall. This was Moen’s strategy. Kohler has taken a different tack by creating a showerhead that adds an Alexa-enabled speaker in the middle. The speaker pops out so it can charge. This makes it easy to add, but also more likely that you’ll hop in and get wet before realizing your tunes are still stuck on a charger.  (The Verge)